Have you ever played the old game 20 Questions? Animal, vegetable or mineral – you know the one. Want to try playing against a computer? Warning, the computer wins almost every time!
Welcome to my latest Internet obsession, 20Q.com. You can play online or free, or you can fork over $15Cnd and buy the handheld version, which I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing in WalMart the other day. I read that it will be one of the hot toys of the season. Check out the reviews on Amazon - I’m not the only addict!
I found 20Q through an article in the local paper (the artificial intelligence behind the game was built by a guy who lives here in Ottawa) and haven’t been able to stop playing since. It’s probably a good thing the 20q.com link is blocked from my work server – but I could always stash a handheld version in my desk. Guess what I’m asking Santa for this Christmas?
Why are you still here reading? Really, go try it! So far, the longest it’s taken is 29 questions to guess “big toe”. It took less than 20 questions to guess doughnut, lobster, spam and chewing gum. It blows me away every single time.
If you want some insight into how the AI (artificial intelligence) uses your answers to build it’s neural networks, play the next generation testing text only version instead. After you play, the computer tells you how your answers matched up with its expectations.
Now, stop reading and go play! (Don’t forget to come back and tell me whether you loved it or not, though…)
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I kicked his ass – he didn’t get measuring tape. Not sure I answered the questions accurately, but I think I did. I’ll try again later…ont sure if I am academic enough to be as addicted to this as you, I am partial to mindless, bad posture inducing colourful computer games like tetris or bejeweled.
I so smarrrt.
Well Maybe I don’t understand the rules but it tells me it wins and I picked a carrot and The answer it gave me is the colour Orange. LOL! It’s cool I think Miranda would love this for Christmas.
Thansk Dani this is the type of game I love. (I love 3 for All and Trivial prusuit!)
Oh, Dani. My husband came home with the handheld a month or two ago and is OBSESSED with it. Like, sometimes he can’t get our son to preschool on time because they’re too busy asking the bleeping Q20 questions.
I just showed him your post. Now that he knows that Q20 is on the internet, he will never get any work done again…
OK, it took him a while, but he figured out my envelope. Hope I am playing it right.
I’m sure you’ve seen this, right?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001NE2AK/qid=1129736108/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-6996651-7767268
That is really cool. I was thinking of chocolate pie, and it guessed chocolate cake.
When I let it go on, though, to see if it could guess the pie, it ended up looking for scotch and whiskey.
Cool!
I know the guy in Ottawa who designed it. A long time ago, in a company far away we were looking at his research to use in predicting network failures. Same sorta stuff. I was fortunate enough to look at some of the original prtotype material. You can also use the backend engine to help find movies you would like.
The interesting part is there initially was no intelligence in the system. It was built up by people playing the text version and entering in more data as they used it. When I first saw it, it was not very good. If you occasionally get some odd results it has nothing to do with me and my co-workers trying to convince the database that every answer is breast.(we were young)
oh how cool, I could so love the handheld version, will be searching for it in stores
btw I stumped it with asthma, did guess hay fever and cough which is close enough though
and Nancy, love Tetris here too, have a handheld version of it, OK bought it for dd but I think I’ve used it more, like when I go in her room to supposedly clesn up!!
…thanks for making me late for preschool drop off this morning.
Hi Dani,
I actually tried the game before finishing your post and when I came back to finish reading and saw your “Why are you still here reading?” I started laughing.
First time commenter, whee!
I stumped! the! machine! with ‘Himalayan cat’ but I have to admit that it was close (it guessed Persian & Siamese, and Himalayans are a mix of the two). I was amazed when it guessed ‘metronome.’ Smart little bugger.
Great blog!
Kristina
We stumped it a while back with “tree.” I kid you not. It guessed “oak tree” but not just plain tree. And at the end when we saw the Q&A it said there are no songs about trees! Hmmmph. Not that I can think of one at the moment, but surely there are some!
OK, went back to try again. After guessing “apple tree” and “grape vine” it did come up with “tree.” And that colorful beepy interface? I don’t know, I like the old text version better.
Welcome Kristina and Madeleine!
I find whatever you guys chose to make it guess as fascinating as the game itself!! For some reason, the handheld game is much more compelling to me – maybe I expect more from the computer?
It was totally stumped by “crayon” the other day, too. It had never heard of one, apparently.
xo Dani, so glad you played!
I am now addicted to this. Loads of fun! Thanks for sharing.